WOW! Thank you review people! You all rule the world! More reviews please! More reviews = more ruling the world! Yay! So pleeease! Mai is actually in this chapter! (Bet you were wondering when she'd come in ^__~)
Mai Valentine stepped off her plane and filled her lungs with that great city smell. It had been a long time since she had seen Domino City, and she couldn't wait to go all over it, and learn about every inch. As she walked through the thick crowd she saw a small boy with vivid hair leaping up and down trying to see over the heads in the crowd. She waved to him.
"Yugi! Hey!" She called. Yugi stopped hopping and ran up to her, followed by Tristan and Teá.
"Hey, Mai!" He said, happily. Tristan and Teá also greeted her gladly. They walked to the luggage carousel, as Mai and Tristan carried her five huge bags between them, Yugi filled her in on everything that had happened ever since she had left. They all got into Tristan's van, and set off from the airport.
Mai looked around at the three.
"Someone's missing." She said, "Where's Joseph?" Yugi blushed.
"Well… he couldn't come. He… had to… umm…" For a millisecond Mai's face seemed to fall, but then her sarcastic smile returned.
"He didn't want to see me." She said laughing, "Why am I not surprised?"
Yugi looked very uncomfortable.
"I'm sure it's not that, Mai." He began to say, but she waved his words away.
"Where do you want to go, Mai?" Tristan asked.
"Oh you can just drop me off at my hotel, I have a rental waiting for me there." She said, smiling. I want to go see the real Domino starting right away!"
"Do you want us to come with you, Mai?" Teá asked.
"No, I'm sure you've seen it all already, and anyway I'll get through it faster alone." They all nodded. They had to do their homework anyway. Tristan drove into the parking lot of Mai's hotel. Five pimpled, teenage bellboys ran over to help as soon as they saw her get out of the car. Mai winked at them and unloaded her bags onto their carts. She waved to Yugi and the gang.
"See you tomorrow! If you see Joseph, tell him I said 'hi!'" They nodded, said their farewells and drove off.
Mai unpacked and collected her rental car. It was a convertible of course. She refused to drive anything else. She got out a map of Domino. 'Hm… might as well start on the West Side.' She though to herself. She pointed out where she was going to the bellboy.
"Which street should I take from here?" She asked. The bellboy shook his head.
"Don't go there, Miss. That just isn't a nice place. It's the poor area of town, lots of gangs." He said, trying to dissuade her.
"I'm going to go everywhere anyway, so why not start there?" She told him. He reluctantly told her how to get there and she set off.
The bellboy was not wrong. It was not a nice part of town. As she drove deeper into the West Side the buildings got shabbier and more dirty, the people became more frightening, and the smell became worse. Mai finally decided to walk, she wasn't afraid of anyone messing with her. They wouldn't dare. She walked for many blocks, gazing at the poverty around her. Bums lay on stoops, small children sat lethargically on the sidewalk, staring at her as she went by. Mai almost felt tears in her eyes. To grow up in a place like this…
She walked farther and farther until she heard loud noises coming from one of the shabbiest apartments. Someone was yelling. She stopped by the apartment, hating herself for listening to their conversation.
"You son of a bitch! What was that about college?! You're gonna leave me just like your Goddamn slut of a mother!" Someone yelled inside the building.
"No! That's not how it is! Honest! Mom left us both, you and me! I'll never be like her! I'll never leave!" Mai winced as she heard the obvious sound of a punch. She considered calling the police, but her cell phone was in her car, and she doubted whether there was a payphone for the next mile. The yelling continued.
"You'll never be good for anything! You're gonna stay here and work at the shop until the day you die!"
"Okay! That's fine! I promise I'll never leave like she did! I'm your son, I won't betray you!"
"You aren't my son! You're just some bastard your mother brought in!"
"Dad! You know that isn't true!"
"Get out of here, you son of a bitch!"
"Dad! Please! Stop! Lemme go! I'm your son! Your son!"
"I don't have a son, I never did!"
Loud crashes sounded as someone got dragged down the stairs. Mai was horrified, she wanted to close out the sounds, run away screaming, curl up in a ball and yell so that she wouldn't have to listen to it. But she listened on. Suddenly the door of the apartment building opened. A person was thrown out, tumbled down the stairs and lay half in a mud puddle. The door slammed shut, and Mai ran over to the blonde boy who lay curled in a fetal position clutching his side. She carefully turned him over. When she saw his face she screamed. It was Joey. That joking boy who she'd known since Duelist Kingdom. His face was bloody and his eyes unseeing.
"Joseph?" She breathed. He didn't seem to recognize her. She half carried him to the curb of the road. She took off his sopping wet jacket and draped her own over his shoulders. He sat staring at the ground. Tears were running down his cheeks. She sat next to him, staring at him with a horrified fixation. "Joseph? What happened? Was that your..?"
Joey began talking, he seemed to be taking a huge burden off his shoulders as he spoke.
"Yeah. That's my dad. He's been like this ever since the very first day my Mom left. But he wasn't always like this! He… he… used to be the greatest dad on earth." Tears continued flowing down his face. Mai wondered why he was telling her this, and then realized he didn't really know who he was talking to. She thought about stopping him, but then felt that no matter how he felt afterwards, he needed to tell someone this. Joey continued,
"Mom and Dad never really got along. They would always bicker, but my dad never got me involved. He always liked to talk to me about what I would do when I grow up. And about how I'll do better than he did, and get a good education." He laughed humorlessly. "I always wanted to be a baseball player for the Yankees. Third baseman, star hitter. That was my dream. My dad always thought that I could do it, we'd talk about how he would come to see all my games, and I'd give him a V.I.P pass and he could sit right above the dugout. He called me 'Slammer,' because I was sure I was going to break the record of grand slams for one game in my lifetime. He was the first one to call me Joey. My mom wouldn't at all. I hated my name for so long, and I tried to get people to call me 'Joey,' but no one ever would. Then my dad began introducing me as 'Joey,' and I finally got rid of 'Joseph.'
"We'd do everything together, and sometimes my mom would let Serenity go too. She was never very close with my dad because my mom always told her bad things about him. Like how he drank too much, or has a fake high school diploma. But I worshipped him. Mom would tell me those things too, but I wouldn't pay any attention. I loved my Dad more than anyone else, and I still do." He trailed off for a bit, and they sat there in dead silence.
"I remember the first time I went to school after my mom left." He began again, "I was waiting to be picked up, and my mom always told me to never go home alone, never to walk on the streets, and always wait for her. So I sat there for hours, waiting. I don't really know who I was waiting for. The odds that my dad would have remembered me were nil. But I still waited. Then finally I just got up and started walking. At first I was afraid, and then I realized the incredible freedom you get from the streets. It turned out that everyone knew me, but I didn't know them since I wasn't allowed to talk to any strangers. Starting that day I got to know them. The gangsters and the whores. They protected me. They taught me the rules of life. Kill or be killed. I was finally happy. But everyday I saw my dad turning more and more to drink, and the abuse came more and more frequently. But I still love him. I don't know why." He was sobbing now. "I keep telling myself, 'Kill him, you idiot!' but I never can. I love him! I really do, he was my protector, my friend. Now he denies that I'm his son, he's forgetting about me. The only nice memories I have left are from before I was ten. He buried his face in his knees, and Mai suddenly felt this urge to reach out to him. She didn't even know why, but she put her arm around him, and hugged him.
After a few minutes he looked up. His eyes grew wide in recognition and horror.
"MAI!" He yelled and leapt away from her. He wiped his eyes quickly and said, "I'm a pretty good actor, eh? I was rehearsing for this… uh… play I'm in and I wanted to test the realism of the role on someone. Heh, had you convinced didn't I?" He said, but silent tears were running down his face. She stood up and grabbed her and Joey's jackets.
"Come on, you." She said and began dragging him toward her car.
"Hey! Hey! Where are you taking me!" He yelled, as she dragged him on. When they got to her car, she forced Joey into it, despite his protests.
"We're going for a drive." She said, firmly. She started the car, and they drove off, Joey staring moodily out the window.
Fifteen minutes later, Mai tried to make conversation.
"So, tell me about yourself."
"Like what?" He asked, still staring out the window.
"Where were you born?" She asked.
"New York."
"That's interesting. Why do you live here?"
"Because we moved here."
"And why was that?"
"Because my dad had to work here."
Mai frowned. This wasn't really working.
"Tell my about your childhood."
"Fine. I was born in Queens, New York on February 3rd. Serenity was born there two years later. I had a lot of friends, and I loved it there. When I was seven, we had to move here. I had lived in Queens long enough to have a lasting accent, plus my dad talks like this so it was reinforced. My mom made Serenity stop talking with an accent. I hated it here for a long time. My dad used to work with Tristan's dad, until his dad died in a car crash. Then my dad started his own auto shop called "Wheeler Automotives." All the men in my family have been mechanics. I think the profession might have come before the last name even. Alright. That enough?"
Mai laughed,
"Okay, that covers your childhood. What else?"
"I dunno."
"Do you play an instrument or anything?"
"Yeah. I play guitar. Well I used to."
"What happened?"
"I had to sell it to pay the rent."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"It's fine. It was funny, before my parents split up my dad, Serenity and I had our own little band. She played percussion and he played sax. It was hilarious. You haven't lived until you hear five year old Serenity singing 'Wild Thing.'"
Mai snickered at the mental image.
"That reminds me. How is your sister?"
"Oh she's fine. The operation went really well, and she's staying with me now."
"That's great! I'm surprised your mom let her."
"Well Mom's in Australia with her boyfriend. Serenity didn't want to go at all, and since I offered to take her in, and it's really not useful to have your daughter from a previous marriage around when you're in a relationship, my mom said she could stay."
They sat there in
silence for a minute, then Mai put on the radio, it was on the Oldies station.
"Do you like Oldies?" She
asked.
"Love them." Joey said. "What's your favorite oldies band?"
"I dunno, I like all of them. How about you?"
"Rolling Stones are awesome. Beatles too. Oh and you can't forget The Turtles!"
"I can't see me lovin' nobody but you, for all my life! When you're with me baby the skies'll be blue for all my life! Me and you! And you and me! No matter how they toss the dice! It had to be, the only one for me is you, and you for me! So happy together!" The both sang together, and then burst out laughing. The ice was broken.
"I can't believe I met another Turtles fan around my age!" Mai said, still laughing.
"Hey, that song is a classic! How can you not love it?"
"Oh I know! It's my absolute favorite!" She said. The grinned at each other; Joey's father forgotten for the moment. Suddenly, Joey looked at his watch.
"Oh shoot! I was supposed to be at Burger World fifteen minutes ago!"
"I can drive you there. Meeting Yugi?"
"Er… Not exactly." Mai didn't ask anymore questions, but drove quickly to the large burger joint. Joey hopped out, his clothes were still muddy and damp, and he was covered in blood and bruises. Mai got out too,
"I'll walk you to the door." She said smiling. Joey nodded.
As they walked in, a girl around Joey's age with bright purple hair marched up to him.
"Christy! Babyyyy!" He said grinning at her. She slapped him on the face.
"Joey Wheeler! First you're twenty minutes late! Then you come in all disgusting with this… this… hussy! How can you do this to me in front of all these people!"
Joey looked at a loss for words.
"I'm so so sorry, hon! I got in a fight on the way here, and then my old friend Mai from Duelist Kingdom came by and…" She glared at him.
"Fine. I'll give you one more chance. But you better take me on the nicest date in the world next weekend, or we're through!" She snapped, and turned away. Joey nodded meekly.
Mai had been rolling her eyes up to the word 'date.' 'Date? What date? DATE?! This is his girlfriend? NO! Joey can't have a girlfriend. Impossible.' She felt a weird feeling the pit of her stomach. What was it? A small though leaped into her mind. 'Jealous? JEALOUS? Of what?! Christy? Why one earth would she feel that. Pity maybe, there was something she could understand, but jealousy?' She attributed the feeling to the fact that she hadn't had lunch yet. Joey was walking dejectedly toward the car, she hurried to go catch up with him.
"So that was your…?"
"My girlfriend. I never have enough money to go on nice dates, and I'm not good at all that romantic crap." He said, flopping into the car. "I'm surprised she hasn't dumped me already. I really don't deserve her." He said sighing.
'No,' Mai thought, 'She doesn't deserve you.' "Come on," she said, "I want to hear you play guitar!"
"I told you! I had to sell it."
"That doesn't matter." She said grinning at him and drove off, with him staring at her in confusion.
